Wish I knew, the depressing film Alfie, that Cilla Black sang about were dark times. Full of predjudice, promiscutity, abortions, and yet Alfie was a comedy!
Not much to laugh about these days either.
Comes to something when watching Vikings on TV is a relief from real life!
Sick of the news, some days I can't watch it.
What I'd like to see is Nazazin Zaghari Radcliffe get out of prison and re-unite with her daughter and husband again.
Teresa May resign - she's not coping - and I am sick of seeing an old lady in designer dresses with knobbly knees and big banana feet trying to pretend she knows what she's doing. Lets face it she's not Mutti (Angela Merkle).
May was hated by the Metropolitan Police when she was in charge of them, incompetance shone forth in everything she did.
Just saying things in a stern voice does not make it true or good. She certainly does not speak for the 48% of people who wanted to stay in the EU. Or the Irish or the Scots.
Boris Johnson the British Trump..... It's time he left to spend more time with his family if he's got one - or like his sister and father do TV game shows Like I'm a Celebrity and Pointless. I'd love to hear he'd given up politics.
But day after day, week after week, the news gets worse and worse, people don't break up with their boyfriends/girlfriends any more - they stab them up or throw acid at them. When did ordinary working class people become these thugs?
Every terrestrial tv show that is popular - Like Vikings - is chock full of violence.
Yet teenagers who steal cars and drive them into other kids or trees are wept over like heros when their stunts go wrong and they die by their own actions.
Where I work is a museum full of beautiful and wonderful things collected by a man who wanted to share his love of art with the public. They don't see his generosity, they see his riches and are jealous of his collection. They have a go at us the Guides and the Room Wardens, always wanting to know where the prostitutes were kept, and did they creep in
to the Maids rooms?
The family at the time were decent people, still are, if a little more arrogant about it. They have always supported charities and the house was used for evacuees during WW2.
What has gone wrong with humanity that the values of decency, respect and love have disappeared? What is wrong with having a nice life? This world is a brilliant place and we are breaking it.
Getting too preachy now so I'll just sign off and say Have a lovely weekend whatever you do, make your friends laugh, eat good food, and love your family. Do one little thing to make the world a better place. Even if it's teaching a killer whale to say "Hello!"
Thursday, 1 February 2018
Friday, 26 January 2018
Another one of THOSE days
Found out that a parcel I posted to Sweden has ended up in Houston Texas.
Hubby got a puncture on way to work.
Lost my debit card.
Cat decided to hit the litter tray HARD! and then go out - it's just too cold for outside toilet I suppose. 2 degrees today
I am wearing a purple velvet velour Goth dress because it's the only thing I could get on by myself wearing my so called Cricket Splint.
Rather than get stressed out - I complained to the Post Office, Local and Regional.
Do we pay £250 for tyres for a car worth £100?
Cleared up kitty litter hopping on my splints and crutches, perhaps I should enter for Kitty Litter Olympics, took a bit of contortionism to do.
Goth evening dress surprisingly cosy and looks stunning, goes with my white face from all the pain and white hair from having one health disaster after another.
Debit Card turned up down the side of the sofa.
So all good.
Well I say all good it's only 10.40am - have the rest of the day to go yet!
Have a good weekend everyone.
Hubby got a puncture on way to work.
Lost my debit card.
Cat decided to hit the litter tray HARD! and then go out - it's just too cold for outside toilet I suppose. 2 degrees today
I am wearing a purple velvet velour Goth dress because it's the only thing I could get on by myself wearing my so called Cricket Splint.
Rather than get stressed out - I complained to the Post Office, Local and Regional.
Do we pay £250 for tyres for a car worth £100?
Cleared up kitty litter hopping on my splints and crutches, perhaps I should enter for Kitty Litter Olympics, took a bit of contortionism to do.
Goth evening dress surprisingly cosy and looks stunning, goes with my white face from all the pain and white hair from having one health disaster after another.
Debit Card turned up down the side of the sofa.
So all good.
Well I say all good it's only 10.40am - have the rest of the day to go yet!
Have a good weekend everyone.
Tuesday, 23 January 2018
Money is the root of all Evil
Is it? Is it really?
3% of people own the worlds riches.
If they wanted to they could change the world for the better with their wealth instead of buying gold plated jags and huge houses they only live in for a few days a year.
Why don't they use their money for good?
Are they Evil?
Some are, some aren't.
They are people like us.
The Beckhams and the Gates' and many other famous people use their fame to raise money for charity. Do they actually give any of their own money away? Hard to find out.
But loads of people with hardly any money to keep themselves,across the UK are coerced into supporting charities, through the post.Junk mail seems to have reached record levels. Guilting us with half starved donkeys covered in sores and children who are skeletons with flies in their eyes.
I do support charities with my own time and money.
The Salvation Army - they help those who no-one else will touch.
The Blue Cross and the RSPCA - because animals deserve to be treated with respect.
The Movember Foundation for Men's health because men are notoriously bad at looking after themselves.
The National Trust to preserve our Heritage for everyone.
The Poppy Foundation for war veterans.
The Sealed Knot - raising money for charity up and down the country.
I used to volunteer to answer phones for Children in Need every year while working for the BBC.
I think if I had more money I wouldn't sit on it, but then I have always been a spendthrift.
What are people thinking when they win huge amounts of money on the lottery and say
"It won't change my life." and go back to work as if nothing had happened. Why do the lottery? I want it to change my life!
They give Lottery winners counselling when they win. What about people like me who need counselling when they lose?
I would get my health properly fixed, and buy a house I would love and look after. I'd get a King Charles spaniel, and spend time with my hubby doing all the things we can't currently afford to do- like go to Venice on the Orient Express. Sort my family and friends out and generally have a good time. (That doesn't include drugs and drink and debauchery!) I would
go to the Theatre more, have tea at Bettys in Harrogate and the Savoy in London, buy a motorhome to go Sealed Knotting in, and sit on a Cornish beach in the sun.
In the 16th/17th/18th Centuries, Lords of the Manors in England felt an obligation to employ local people, it was their duty to look after those on their lands.
Now it is volunteers looking after the Manor Houses that the Lords partially own having got out of death duties by bequeathing the Houses to charities like the National Trust, with caveats that mean they can still live in the houses, and dip into the coffers.
No money isn't evil, it's what it's used for that can be.
I have been saving again recently but my previous savings went on the pallative care of one little cat, and life saving care for his replacement. Rescued and obtained from the RSPCA. My next lot of savings will pay for private physiotherapy for my dislocated kneecap and split
ligaments. I can just about afford this so that the NHS can treat someone who can't.
Money is like the sea, it comes in in huge waves, and then just as quickly disappears again.
Also like the sea - it can slip through your fingers.
Lets hope for a future for everyone that has enough cash for food, fun, and health.
3% of people own the worlds riches.
If they wanted to they could change the world for the better with their wealth instead of buying gold plated jags and huge houses they only live in for a few days a year.
Why don't they use their money for good?
Are they Evil?
Some are, some aren't.
They are people like us.
The Beckhams and the Gates' and many other famous people use their fame to raise money for charity. Do they actually give any of their own money away? Hard to find out.
But loads of people with hardly any money to keep themselves,across the UK are coerced into supporting charities, through the post.Junk mail seems to have reached record levels. Guilting us with half starved donkeys covered in sores and children who are skeletons with flies in their eyes.
I do support charities with my own time and money.
The Salvation Army - they help those who no-one else will touch.
The Blue Cross and the RSPCA - because animals deserve to be treated with respect.
The Movember Foundation for Men's health because men are notoriously bad at looking after themselves.
The National Trust to preserve our Heritage for everyone.
The Poppy Foundation for war veterans.
The Sealed Knot - raising money for charity up and down the country.
I used to volunteer to answer phones for Children in Need every year while working for the BBC.
I think if I had more money I wouldn't sit on it, but then I have always been a spendthrift.
What are people thinking when they win huge amounts of money on the lottery and say
"It won't change my life." and go back to work as if nothing had happened. Why do the lottery? I want it to change my life!
They give Lottery winners counselling when they win. What about people like me who need counselling when they lose?
I would get my health properly fixed, and buy a house I would love and look after. I'd get a King Charles spaniel, and spend time with my hubby doing all the things we can't currently afford to do- like go to Venice on the Orient Express. Sort my family and friends out and generally have a good time. (That doesn't include drugs and drink and debauchery!) I would
go to the Theatre more, have tea at Bettys in Harrogate and the Savoy in London, buy a motorhome to go Sealed Knotting in, and sit on a Cornish beach in the sun.
In the 16th/17th/18th Centuries, Lords of the Manors in England felt an obligation to employ local people, it was their duty to look after those on their lands.
Now it is volunteers looking after the Manor Houses that the Lords partially own having got out of death duties by bequeathing the Houses to charities like the National Trust, with caveats that mean they can still live in the houses, and dip into the coffers.
No money isn't evil, it's what it's used for that can be.
I have been saving again recently but my previous savings went on the pallative care of one little cat, and life saving care for his replacement. Rescued and obtained from the RSPCA. My next lot of savings will pay for private physiotherapy for my dislocated kneecap and split
ligaments. I can just about afford this so that the NHS can treat someone who can't.
Money is like the sea, it comes in in huge waves, and then just as quickly disappears again.
Also like the sea - it can slip through your fingers.
Lets hope for a future for everyone that has enough cash for food, fun, and health.
Wednesday, 17 January 2018
A Rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
Romeo Capulet to Juliet Montague.
Truly though? What does your name say about you?
My current surname is Evans, and there are millions of us, (the tenth most popular name in England) not rating as high as Smith (most prevalent) or Jones (most frequently in use.)
All my English family names are craft or workmanlike names
Cooper - Barrel maker
Smith - Blacksmith
Turner - Woodturner - sometimes thought to be from the Norman invasion
My first husband's surname Buxton - was a little more elevated, the surname of a Baronet and a beer maker (Truman Hanbury and Buxton)
My Irish Family are descended from King Kevan apparently according to my much loved but deceased aunt.
But the name Clifford came from the de Clifford family, so that part of the family were either vassals or Knights of the de Clifford clan living in Northern Ireland
Burke another Irish name is also an aristocratic origin from Normandy.
What does it all mean? Is it important?
Well yes, if your name is Darren or Kaley or Chardonnay, your work life choices are limited.
If your name is Tobias, Matthew, Ashley, Millie or Rosie you are going to be middle class, probably go to uni and get a reasonable job.
If your name is Cressida, Leandra or Phaedra, Jack or James or Jasper, whatever you do in life you will be successful because your parents and their friends will make it so.
I am a Margaret - it used to be the most popular name in England at the time I was born.
I wasn't named after Princess Margaret, but all the eldest girls in our family were traditionally called Margaret, my mother was a Margaret, her sister baptised, while my grandmother was still recovering from the birth was also a Margaret (a mistake) so her middle name became her first when Granny found out what had happened!
Margaret Cooper Evans - added my maiden name as there are so many writers called Margaret Evans!
If you haven't got the right name, even these days of so called equality, you won't fit.
It doesn't matter how educated you are or how high your IQ is, as I found out in the BBC if you have the "right" name you are fast-tracked. I worked with Lady Jane Wellesley at the BBC and she didn't use her title or her name because she wanted to earn her promotions, we worked together, and were both getting no-where fast. When she decided to use her name, she was promoted and promoted in a year, and me - well it took a lot longer.
I always admired her for trying.
So why this why now? Well my book The Women of the English Civil War, is being "re-imagined" by two upper class ladies with names that don't include Evans Cooper Turner.
Whose first names are classical mythical beauties. Who on the back of my 20 years of research are making money from my work. Whose parents are wealthy.
I'm JAM just about managing. When I complain I am told I am in the wrong, they didn't use my research word for word (they did) or copy my book format (they did). It's all my imagination.
To use Agatha Christie's famous Murder Mystery title "Why didn't they ask Evans?"
Because with a name like mine you are deemed unimportant.
Truly though? What does your name say about you?
My current surname is Evans, and there are millions of us, (the tenth most popular name in England) not rating as high as Smith (most prevalent) or Jones (most frequently in use.)
All my English family names are craft or workmanlike names
Cooper - Barrel maker
Smith - Blacksmith
Turner - Woodturner - sometimes thought to be from the Norman invasion
My first husband's surname Buxton - was a little more elevated, the surname of a Baronet and a beer maker (Truman Hanbury and Buxton)
My Irish Family are descended from King Kevan apparently according to my much loved but deceased aunt.
But the name Clifford came from the de Clifford family, so that part of the family were either vassals or Knights of the de Clifford clan living in Northern Ireland
Burke another Irish name is also an aristocratic origin from Normandy.
What does it all mean? Is it important?
Well yes, if your name is Darren or Kaley or Chardonnay, your work life choices are limited.
If your name is Tobias, Matthew, Ashley, Millie or Rosie you are going to be middle class, probably go to uni and get a reasonable job.
If your name is Cressida, Leandra or Phaedra, Jack or James or Jasper, whatever you do in life you will be successful because your parents and their friends will make it so.
I am a Margaret - it used to be the most popular name in England at the time I was born.
I wasn't named after Princess Margaret, but all the eldest girls in our family were traditionally called Margaret, my mother was a Margaret, her sister baptised, while my grandmother was still recovering from the birth was also a Margaret (a mistake) so her middle name became her first when Granny found out what had happened!
Margaret Cooper Evans - added my maiden name as there are so many writers called Margaret Evans!
If you haven't got the right name, even these days of so called equality, you won't fit.
It doesn't matter how educated you are or how high your IQ is, as I found out in the BBC if you have the "right" name you are fast-tracked. I worked with Lady Jane Wellesley at the BBC and she didn't use her title or her name because she wanted to earn her promotions, we worked together, and were both getting no-where fast. When she decided to use her name, she was promoted and promoted in a year, and me - well it took a lot longer.
I always admired her for trying.
So why this why now? Well my book The Women of the English Civil War, is being "re-imagined" by two upper class ladies with names that don't include Evans Cooper Turner.
Whose first names are classical mythical beauties. Who on the back of my 20 years of research are making money from my work. Whose parents are wealthy.
I'm JAM just about managing. When I complain I am told I am in the wrong, they didn't use my research word for word (they did) or copy my book format (they did). It's all my imagination.
To use Agatha Christie's famous Murder Mystery title "Why didn't they ask Evans?"
Because with a name like mine you are deemed unimportant.
Sunday, 14 January 2018
It's been a while!
Yes it has, I sit here leg in splint with kneecap held in place after dislocating it turning over in my sleep on Thursday at 2am.
I was hoping for a different January, one where I went with the Sealed Knot to Nantwich and caroused in the pubs, marched in the street, then visited friends.
Not happening.
One where I was going to Waddesdon Manor to hear about the Christmas debrief.
Nope.
One where I was going to meet friends for coffee and go out shopping.
Nada
One where I was going to have physio to fix my back and to the hairdresser to fix my hair.
Non.
We were going to look at a new house on Saturday - bigger.
Didn't happen.
So start of the year a bit of a non starter. I was really hoping my run of bad luck didn't run into 2018. As I was sitting in the Ambulance on Friday morning all I could think of was that I had one month 28 days of nothing horrible happening.
I spent five and a half hours in A&E waiting to be seen on Friday, two and a half hours in the fracture clinic on Saturday, and I can't walk for 6 weeks. 6 WEEKS!!
So with leg elevated, temper short and on the verge of tears - again. What do I do now?
Hubby has to work on Monday.
That IS going to happen.
I wish I had another child, a girl, girls are good at looking after their Mums, but Verity decided not to come and join us 16 years ago, so I am on my own. AGAIN.
WHAT A SAD SACK.
I will write again when things improve.
I was hoping for a different January, one where I went with the Sealed Knot to Nantwich and caroused in the pubs, marched in the street, then visited friends.
Not happening.
One where I was going to Waddesdon Manor to hear about the Christmas debrief.
Nope.
One where I was going to meet friends for coffee and go out shopping.
Nada
One where I was going to have physio to fix my back and to the hairdresser to fix my hair.
Non.
We were going to look at a new house on Saturday - bigger.
Didn't happen.
So start of the year a bit of a non starter. I was really hoping my run of bad luck didn't run into 2018. As I was sitting in the Ambulance on Friday morning all I could think of was that I had one month 28 days of nothing horrible happening.
I spent five and a half hours in A&E waiting to be seen on Friday, two and a half hours in the fracture clinic on Saturday, and I can't walk for 6 weeks. 6 WEEKS!!
So with leg elevated, temper short and on the verge of tears - again. What do I do now?
Hubby has to work on Monday.
That IS going to happen.
I wish I had another child, a girl, girls are good at looking after their Mums, but Verity decided not to come and join us 16 years ago, so I am on my own. AGAIN.
WHAT A SAD SACK.
I will write again when things improve.
Thursday, 4 January 2018
Happy New Year Everybody!
I felt cold as I heard 17th Century Carols sung in a building of the same age, I wandered through Christmas lights hanging in trees where I work. I felt ill, I felt well, I danced, I had a few drinks.
I wrote, I drew, I laughed, I dressed up, I slobbed out. I had two whole weeks without twitter, blog, e.mails etc. I read some old classic books, GK Chesterton, Agatha Christie and I read some new authors that are younger than some of my shoes.
It's said what you concentrate on, you get more of. That was certainly true of the fruit cake and the cheese biscuits and the mince pies and the shortbread I made. Now all gone, probably to the same place as my waistline.
I met friends, sat and chatted, watched the fire flicker in the woodburner, entertained my new little cat to whom everything was new and exciting.
Appreciated the time with my darling husband, who spent more time asleep than awake!
So now it's back to work, we take the decorations down on the 6th, we have seen in the New Year by first footing and having a Yule log, and chased the old year out of the back door by banging and clattering stuff in the kitchen.
For the first time in ages recovering from New Years Eve took most of the following day, and I guess I wasn't the only person that day wearing a cold headache strip on my head.
So now it begins again, the year rolls round, we all get older, the world more dangerous,
whoever said "The more things change, the more they stay the same" was absolutely right.
Anyway I hope you all have a Happy Prosperous and Wonderful New 2018. It's up to us to try and make it what we want. That's no small order, but if you think how far the world has come in just the last 30 years - remember someone had to think of all these things we use today and make them work!!
Tuesday, 12 December 2017
Christmas is coming......
Sounds like a threat - especially for the geese, and the turkeys.
I meant to do so much this year and it's been stymied by illness and deaths of relatives and pets. I am sort of looking forward to Christmas. This is our garden today. We are pretty much snowed in.
I hate snow, like illness, it's one of the things that keeps me housebound. Especially when it's over a foot deep. So today I blitzed the house, everything is clean sparkly and Christmassy!
I have given my money to my charities, not much this year as I haven't earned much. So the Salvation Army has enough for one person's Christmas dinner £10. The Blue Cross can feed unwanted Xmas dogs and cats for a week. £12. The Salvation Army can provide hot soup or drinks to those living on the streets £10. The Movember Foundation has £40 to save young men from suicide and older men from prostate cancer. Shelterbox a Cornish Charity that takes a home in a box to war zones and natural disasters £10. Then there are the coins that I throw into the buckets at Sainsburys and Tescos.
I have tried to get an innocent woman released from prison in Iran. I have tried to give National Trust visitors a happy Christmas visit to my place of work. To me it's never enough.
People in the world sit on huge amounts of money that could do so much good to those who through no fault of their own are suffering this Christmas.
Here is the story of the widow's mite, a coin so small as to be almost worthless -
"He sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow also came and put in two mites, coins worth less than two pennies. Jesus said to them, 'I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.'[
How dare you be religious at Christmas I hear some people cry!
Even the original Saint Nicholas gave away his wealth see below:
Nicholas was born to a wealthy family in Patara, Lycia. When his parents died, and he inherited a considerable sum of money he kept none of it. In the most famous story about his life, he threw bags of gold through the windows of three young girls about to be forced into lives of prostitution.
So give your widows mite or some of your wealth, or your time and love to someone who needs it this Christmas.
I meant to do so much this year and it's been stymied by illness and deaths of relatives and pets. I am sort of looking forward to Christmas. This is our garden today. We are pretty much snowed in.
I have tried to get an innocent woman released from prison in Iran. I have tried to give National Trust visitors a happy Christmas visit to my place of work. To me it's never enough.
People in the world sit on huge amounts of money that could do so much good to those who through no fault of their own are suffering this Christmas.
Here is the story of the widow's mite, a coin so small as to be almost worthless -
"He sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow also came and put in two mites, coins worth less than two pennies. Jesus said to them, 'I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.'[
How dare you be religious at Christmas I hear some people cry!
Even the original Saint Nicholas gave away his wealth see below:
Nicholas was born to a wealthy family in Patara, Lycia. When his parents died, and he inherited a considerable sum of money he kept none of it. In the most famous story about his life, he threw bags of gold through the windows of three young girls about to be forced into lives of prostitution.
So give your widows mite or some of your wealth, or your time and love to someone who needs it this Christmas.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)